Trouble At Nibelheim
by That Man Writing Over There
Summary: The group are at Nibelheim resting up on the journey to stop Sephiroth. Cloud finds out more about what happened five years ago and Yuffie, Cid, Barret and Cloud must save the rest of the group from Hojo
1. Descent from the Mountain

**Chapter One – Descent from the Mountain**

The man ran through the steel pylons and wires, gunshots sounding behind him and the brief whizzing noise and a small brush of air when the bullets went by. The bullets that were about to hit him he deflected with his sword and slashed at the men that appeared in front of him to stop him. As he ran he heard the all too familiar "whoosh" that an RPG makes after it's fired he turned to see what had happened and saw the rocket flying towards him and ran faster, but he knew the rocket would eventually catch up and turn him into Jelly. As he ran he heard a kiai and a whirring sound and saw a glint of steel flash by and heard a grinding noise followed by an explosion which forced the man off his feet. He flew through the air, landed on the ground with a thud and skidded to a halt in front of a pair of orangey-yellow boots.

"You really need to learn how to take care of yourself Cloud!" The girl offered a gloved hand to Cloud. He took the hand and got back on his feet.

"Yeah, thanks Yuffie. Why are you here? I didn't tell anyone I was going up to the reactor." A round of machine gun fire broke the conversation and the two ran towards the exit of the reactor.

"Well," Yuffie said as she ran "much as I'd like to continue this compelling conversation I think we should get to safety first right?" The two ran through the reactor, dispatching of anyone who got in the way and eventually got rid of all the SOLDIERS.

As they walked out of the reactor, night had fallen over the Nibelheim Mountains. Yuffie pulled herself closer to Cloud.

"Ah, maaaan!!! Why did it have to be dark!! I hate the dark…" Yuffie wailed, clutching Clouds arm. Cloud rolled his eyes and turned to Yuffie.

"Well, the quicker we get down the mountain the quicker we can get back to the inn and get some sleep."

"And you'll be able to hide the thing you took from the reactor right?" Cloud spluttered and turned to Yuffie with an extremely fake look of nonchalance and a rather forced grimace plastered on his face.

"I… well… what… uh… what are you talking about? I haven't got anything…" the way Cloud said this didn't wane Yuffie's suspicion. She stopped and turned to Cloud.

"Well then, what's THIS?!?" As Yuffie said the sentence she stuffed her hand down Cloud's pants.

"Hey! Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?!?!" Cloud blushed and stammered as Yuffie rummaged around his pants, eventually pulling out a small envelope.

"Aha! Ah, hahaha! Thought you could hide it from me huh? You can't hide nothing from a skilled ninja like me!!!" with a large, smug grin on her face Yuffie began to open the envelope. Just as she was about to open it to see what was inside, Cloud reaches over and snatches it back.

"Ah! Hey!"

"You know it's rude to steal things. I would have though you had learnt your lesson at Wutai." Cloud jumped down a small ledge and signaled Yuffie to follow.

"Come on, hurry up or I'll leave you up here. And no more trying to take my stuff. It's my own business."

"All right All right! Jeez!"


	2. Back at the Inn

**Chapter 2 – Back at the Inn**

As the old, forlorn Shinra Mansion came into view, Cloud relaxed a little. The many monsters that roam the mountains very rarely came into the town.

"Yes! Almost there! Race you Cloud!" Yuffie ran off towards the town as fast as she could, laughing manically. Cloud just continued to trudge wearily down the dirt road into Nibelheim and rolled his eyes over his young companion.

'How can she have so much energy?!" Cloud began to think "We just walked all the way from the Mako reactor at the top of the mountain and she still has the energy to run all the way to the inn!"

As Cloud neared the light posts that were the entrance into town he was greeted with a blood curdling scream coming from the inn. Cloud drew his Buster Sword and ran as fast as he could to the inn. As he got to the inn he found Yuffie outside, sobbing hysterically.

"Yuffie! What's the matter?! What's happened?!" Yuffie tried to answer but her sobbing made her speech incomprehensible, so she simply gestured for Cloud to walk into the building him self and see what had happened.

As he walked inside, Cloud was greeted with the all too familiar smell of blood. He walked to the counter and look over to find the inn owner dead, lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. Cloud grimaced and walked towards the stairs.

"Tifa? Barret? Anyone?" Cloud kept a tight grip on his sword as he made his way up to the bedroom at the top of the inn. As he opened the door to the bedroom he saw that a struggle, quite a fierce one, had taken place. Not even a full minute after he had stepped into the room a large spear came hurtling out of the darkness towards him. Cloud deflected it and stood at the ready for the next onslaught.

"#$#!!! Cloud! I could have taken your #$ head off!" Cloud gave a sigh of relief at the identifying of one of his companions.

"Cid?!?! Oh, I've never been happier to hear you swear! What has happened?! Where is everyone?!" Cid holstered his spear and gave a grave look.

"Hojo." Cloud gave a grimace of anger at the mention of the mad scientist's name "He came and took them while me and Barret were at the store. #$, if I was here I would've shoved my spear straight up his ar..."

"Cid! What did Hojo do with the others?"

Cid pointed towards the dilapidated Shinra Mansion.

"He took them into the Mansion. I saw him and a couple of SOLDIERS carrying Tifa and Red up there, but I didn't see Aeris. Barret is out looking for her now. In fact he's looking for you and Yuffie too. Where the hell you two go?"

"I went up to the Reactor, I needed to check something. Yuffie followed me. Hmm, well, at least now I know why there were SOLDIER at the reactor. I thought it..." the sound of footsteps interrupted Cloud's sentence. Both Cloud and Cid stood at the ready, weapons pointed towards the door.

"Hey Cid, I didn't find Aries but I foun…. WHAT THE #$# ARE YOU TWO DOING POINTING THAT #$ AT ME!??!"

"WHAT THE #$ YOU DOING STOMPING UP THE &$#? STIARS LIKE A #$&! BEAST INSTEAD OF SAYING THE CODE WE SET UP!?!?!?!"


End file.
